Author: Elizabeth Lagerback

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Races, Wrongs, and Remedies

I was very interested in the parable of the pedestrian, and was wondering how well that applies to the real life dilemma of the treatment of minority groups in America. The parable of the pedestrian is a parable that is connected to the law of remedies. By the law of remedies, someone who does wrong to someone innocent is legally obligated to make things right restore the innocent person back to where they were before. If the innocent person is not brought back to their original state, then they are not considered remedied. However, sometimes it is impossible to bring someone back to their original state, which is where the parable of the pedestrian comes in.

The parable of the pedestrian is a parable in which an innocent pedestrian is hit by a car, and it is not their fault in any way. The pedestrian loses their ability to walk, and they can possibly get it back with lots of hard work and physical therapy. The driver is morally obligated to pay for the therapy, and anything else the pedestrian needs to recover. However, sometimes in this situation, the pedestrian loses hope, as physical therapy isn’t working, and the are angry at the fact that they have to go through this even though they are innocent. Sadly, the driver cannot do anything more to help. Though it is understandable why the pedestrian loses some hope, recovery is within the pedestrian’s control now.

This parable is applied to the real life situation of the treatment of minority groups in America, specifically African American communities. America clearly hurt African Americans by enslaving them against their will, and even today, effects of slavery can still be felt. There are large disparities between communities of different races in the United States, and many believe this is because of racism and hundreds of years of poor treatment. I think applying the parable of the pedestrian to this situation is oversimplifying things a little, even though the parable has many complex layers. In the parable of the pedestrian, it is clear to tell when the driver has done all they could, but it is not clear when the American government has done their part. Though I do believe there are negative effects of mentally assigning all responsibility for helping a group to an outside party, Wax seems to tend to overestimate how much a group of disadvantage is fully able to help themselves. One example of this is when Wax talks about how another theorist thinks that getting a better education system and schools in inner city communities could improve said communities in the long term. Wax says that this will not guarantee people in these communities will care or study. I don’t think Wax’s argument here is valid, because without sufficient schools, kids growing up in some of these areas barely even have a chance to care or study. It seems extremely unlikely that no one in these communities would want to make the most out of their education given a better chance. I understand that some effort must come from within, but a healthy mixture of efforts from within and the outside of these communities seems like a better solution than either or.

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Reading and Film Presentations and Discussion

Bonnie and Clyde ERA

Bonnie and Clyde is a very interesting movie that depicts some famous characters in American Mythology. Both Bonnie and Clyde existed in real life, but are normally thought of as these romanticized criminals who were in love and traveled America doing crime. Both in the movie and in real life they are at least slightly different than the mythological versions of themselves.

The movie begins when Clyde tries to steal Bonnie’s mothers car. The movie is set in the depression-era in Texas, which still has some feel of the wild west, though more bleak. Bonnie is intrigued by Clyde, so she decides to become his partner in crime, despite not being as criminal as he was already. They try to pull of some small scale crimes, and slowly build up their gang.

The add C.W., Buck and Blanche to their gang, and Blanche and Bonnie do not get along. Their criminal acts slowly become grander and more violent. They go from robbing gas stations to robbing banks. Texas Ranger Frank Hamer pursues the gang, and ends up killing Buck, capturing Blanche, and getting her to reveal C.W.’s name to the law enforcement. Bonnie, Clyde, and C.W. hide out with C.W.’s father, who strikes a deal with the law enforcement. The deal states that he will allow the police to get Bonnie and Clyde as long as his son is spared. C.W.’s dad takes the deal and Bonnie and Clyde are killed.

Bonnie and Clyde live the life of lawless people in the American Wild West at a time when the law is still around, and chasing them. That is why their time is short. Their flame burned bright but didn’t last. This movie made me curious about the romanticization of crimes and lawlessness Americans sometimes have. The Wild West is heavily romanticized, maybe because there is great freedom with lawlessness, and that is what America is founded on.

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Short Essays and Responses Uncategorized

257-conclusion All the Pretty Horses ERA

At the end of All the Pretty Horses, John Grady Cole revisits or tries to revisit many people and places he encountered earlier in the story. First, he goes back to the jail town that he was held in with Blevins and Rawlins to try to retrieve their horses. He ends up doing so, but gets shot in the process. As a consolation prize, he takes the captain hostage, and also shakes off the people chasing him. In this part of the novel it is fairly evident that John Grady Cole has been hardened by the events of his adventure. This shines through when Joh Grady Cole uses his own weapon to cauterize his wound, and resolves to keep moving despite his pain even when the captain begs to take a break. John Grady Cole may have done these things at the beginning of the novel, but the intenseness of his attitude makes it clear he isn’t really a young teenage anymore, and instead has adopted the attitude of the “wild west”.

He then comes back to America, hearing about his dad’s death in the process. At this newsJohn Grady Cole cries for the first time in the story. He later appears before a court, telling them his entire story, and the judge rules that he can keep the horse. John Grady later talks to the judge, saying that he doesn’t feel comfortable with the fact that the judge treated him sort of like a hero, even when he did wrong. This is interesting from the reader’s perspective because John Grady Cole is the protagonist of the story, and he always tries to do right. Still, John Grady Cole ended up doing some things that weighed on his conscience, including killing someone, and even though most of them did not feel like his fault to the reader, John Grady couldn’t get them out of his head. It just goes to show that no matter how moral you are, there is no way to come out of a lawless life fully clean.

John Grady tries to track down the owner of Blevins’ horse, bringing him to the home of Jimmy Blevins, whom he found on the radio. Though Jimmy Blevins and his wife do not turn out to be the owner of the horse, he has dinner with them. He also goes to meet Rawlins, but there seems to be some distance between the two. Lastly, he attends the funeral of Abuela, and the rides off into the sunset, seemingly aimlessly.

It is fitting at the end of the novel John Grady returns home, but home is not the same as it was when he left. He is not the same either. It is unclear which changed more. Following a central theme in the novel, I think that once Cole decided to leave home, he was fated to never come back, and continue being a wanderer, even if his adventure left him with many physical and emotional scars.

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Catch-All/Student Discussion Questions

All the Pretty Horses

Something that stood out to me about the beginning of All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy was the depiction of living on a ranch in Texas. In American mythology, I imagine that life style as sort of the “wild west”. However, in the story, it is depicted as much more calm and quiet. Our main character, John Grady Cole, doesn’t want to leave the ranch, but it seems he is getting drawn out. His mom does want to leave, as she wants to live a more exciting life. This was interesting to me because I imagine farms on the west with horses and cowboys as exciting and full of adventure, but the mom doesn’t think it is this way, as well as many of the other characters. The first part of the novel, with the move, Cole’s parent’s divorce, and death, has a strong bleak tone to it that in turn makes the setting feel bleak as well, and nothing like the ranches I imagined in my youth.

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Reading and Film Presentations and Discussion

ERA Who Are We Chapter 6

In Chapter 6 of “Who Are We” Huntington gets into the meat of what really created American identity. He beings talking about the signing of the declaration of independence, and moves on to describe how wars shaped the nation, namely the Revolutionary and the Civil War. He describes how during war our nation comes together, rallying around different ideas and symbols. Some of our nation’s patriotism faded around the 1960’s, Huntington argues, but there have been other ebbs and flows throughout history.

One of the strongest and most memorable examples of America forming it’s identity was the story in this chapter about Ben Franklin signing the Declaration of Independence. Before he did, he strongly considered himself a “Briton”, but while signing, he transformed into an American. It made me think about how people coming to this country really had to throw away their own identity for a country whose identity hadn’t even been fully created yet. Having a common enemy and all having fight so hard for their new country really helped in creating a strong American identity.

Huntington argues that are nation was not fully created until after the Civil War, and the Civil War actually made us more patriotic. It seems that the more you lose for a country the more you have stake in it, and the more you want it to prosper. Suffering brings Americans closer together, and the only commonality they have to rally around is their American identity, so in times of trouble, American symbols shine brighter than ever. However, American identity is sputtering. I would love to know is others think a common identity is as necessary when the country is prospering, and why it has seemed to dull down in recent years.